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The Official PLP Blog

I have been resisting commenting on this issue for some time now with the hope that the controller of the PLP site and its connected blog would mature in their postings. So far I have not seen any indication of that being the case.

The official site of the Party should be treated with the dignity that a Party with as illustrious past as the PLP has, not as some crass and pathetic propaganda machine.

I have no issue with the PLP site using Government press releases concerning progress under a PLP Government, but I am constantly disappointed that these same government press releases seem unaccessible from the actual Government website. This is bound to raise questions about the blurring of lines between Party and the State, as indeed it already has.

I have not been impressed with the level of argument presented by its write, especially in reference to non-aligned blogs in the blogosphere. An example of this is the recent post ‘UBP’s Online Partisans Trash Dame Lois‘ where it takes issue with a critic on the blog Bermuda Is Another World (this thread).

Now, I don’t at all agree with the sentiments of the post on the BIAW thread, as I think it has a very mistaken understanding of the role Lois Browne-Evans had in the development of modern Bermuda. This poster was in fact attacked by others on that site pretty much along that line. But was this really something worthy of the official PLP site to focus on? And is its criticism of that post valid?

I personally don’t think that the official PLP site should be wasting its time on such petty issues as that one in the blogosphere; had the post been on an official UBP website, then yes, that would have been valid. But although the BIAW site is most likely not frequented (or rather posted on) by pro-PLPers, it is not accurate to then describe it as being a UBP partisan site. Unless it can be proven that the blog is actually a front for the UBP (and I’m not sure how one would do that), it just doesn’t make sense to focus on it.

Similarly the tactic can be reversed back onto the PLP. A poster on this site or another who appears to be anti-UBP could similarly be attacked by the UBP and a call be put out to Dr. Brown to condemn such comments by such a person. There are a few individuals on the blogosphere for whom this could be applicable. Ultimately it comes across as a really stupid and hypocritical approach and not one befitting the official PLP site.

There is also a constant complaint that the official PLP site actively censors comments on that site, so much so that in general people have ceased to bother commenting on it altogether. This is not acceptable. The only valid censorship that should be practised is censoring obscene language and personal attacks. The Party should be able to engage in critics of the Party in a constructive manner through dialouge, not censorship. If it is feeling it necessary to resort to censoring out all opinions critical of Party posts then that implies that it cannot argue against them. The Party is composed of many intelligent people – I cannot accept that it is incapable of responding to criticism constructively.

The use of such censorship only leads to the conclusion that the Party is incapable of validly defending its position. If the Party is unable to defend its position then it needs to rethink its position and not ostrich-like ignore the criticism of it.

The Progressive Minds blog, the ‘official’ site of the PLP Youth Wing has been functionally dead since the 2007 election. There have been some flurries of activity there but nothing sustained. I cannot speak for other former members of the Youth Wing but I myself grew disgusted with the abuse of that site in the run up to the election where for all intensive purposes the site was hijacked by elements other than the Youth Wing and far from being the site for active critical discussion it became just one more tool in a cynical and classless election campaign. As far as I am concerned it ceased being the blog of the Progressive Minds around November 2007 and while I initially hoped that the post-election blog would revert back to PM control for various reasons this has not occurred. Attempts to control discussion beyond simple ‘good’ blogging etiquette doom discourse and constructive creative thought. This ultimately leads to disillussionment and then disaster for the Party as the necessary correction of wrong policies through internal and open criticism cannot occur and leads to blunder after blunder.

The cynical manipulation of discussion and information, as well as the low quality of critical thought and presentation that the ‘official’ sites of the PLP currently offer are not befitting of the Party, nor are they representative of it. Not only can the PLP do better, it should be much better.

I hope that other PLPers, and even non-PLPers can offer their constructive advice on how the PLP sites could be improved.

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10 thoughts on “The Official PLP Blog”

I tend to agree with the entirety of this posting Jonathan. The PLP blog has so much potential in highlighting achievements, delivering party opinions, etc., but I find many of the posts to be of the same style, that is, slam the UBP and the Gazette/Mid-Ocean.

Going forward, and since an online presence is a very effective means to reach a lot of people at once, perhaps the PLP blog could split into two components: the first one (which would reach out to non-members, etc.) for official party opinions and the like, and the second one (for those who are members of the party) being used for them to hash out topics and ideas amongst themselves in a forum-like arena.

As for Prog Minds, it’s sad that it was allowed to fizzle into nothingness, considering there appeared to be much interest in what the members of the Youth Wing were contributing in opinion and ideas. As such there are only two active blogs run by people who openly support the PLP in Bermuda (then again, that’s more than those who openly support the UBP).

The PLP blog has become a national emabarassment. Imagine if a foreign dignitary or businessmen/women need to research some information on Bermuda and decide that the best way to get a feel of the island is the Government’s own website. Then he/she goes to PLP.bm and sees the ruling Government referring to the opposition as “haters” and “racists” and constant slander against the opposition as well as the medi. I would think that I stumbled upon a youth blog in error due to teh immaturity and sickening spin put on each and every blog.

But the scariest thing about this PLP blog is the fact that they undertake the highly dangerous and undemocratic practice of censorship. Thus if you don’t agree don’t bother/waste your time trying to post an opposing view/position. So the lies and spin that do appear become truth on this website (according to the poster and the PLP members) due to their unwillingness to post these opposing arguments or maybe because it is due to the inability to construct a constructive rebuttal. Or maybe it is both.

Even the RG affords soace for PLP members/senators/MPs to include their commentaries in the daily paper. I mean just this Saturday Calvin Smith had an opinion piece published in the RG. But yet the PLP blog does not see the necessity for a democratic nation of allowing for opposing arguments to be put forward? But yet this is the same party which calls the RG the “Racist Gazette” and throws around baseless accusations of bias and overarching conspiracy between rge UBP and the RG? Oh the irony. Once again it is the “people in glass houses” scenario with the PLP. It appears that the PLP.bm site is no better and is actually worse than the RG who they try to villanize on a daily basis. Sick sick sick.

As for the latest spin entitled “UBP’s Online Partisans Trash Dame Lois” the asuumptions made by the PLP blog amounts to nothing but slander. While the post itself is not something I will agree with or defend(as LBE was a pionerr in her time), I cannot tolerate the spin doctor’s propaganda about these individuals being UBP partisans. Where on BIAW site does it state that is is an official UBP site? Where in that post or previous posts did the blogger state that he/she was a UBP partisan/member? It doesn’t. This individual is simply anti-PLP. Doesn’t make him/her pro-UBP, just ant-PLP. These accusations alone show the immaturity of the PLP blog and the dangerous games they are playing with censorship and manipulation of the truth.

PS: Does it really surprise me/anyone? I would say no, and I have become somewhat densensitized to the lies and spin that are spewed from the PLP blog and certain members, such as ms. Furbert. Please see the post below from the BDA Sun website, which highlights her inability to admit she is wrong as well as her inabiltiy to speak the truth. Oh and by the way Ms. Furbert, I have copied and pasted quotes of PLP members from the articles that you refuse to acknowledge of ever taking place. I await no response as usual, unless of course you start on your rant on your “cyber KKK” bullshit. That argument seems to better suit your level of tolerance and intelligence:

LaVerne furbert – posted on BDA Sun – September 27, 2008
“Loki, how can a video “show” me saying something. Were you able to read my lips? Although I do believe that Shawn Crockwell is a confused negro, and I referred to him during the speech that you mention, I did not call him a confused negro at that event. In fact, the sound on the video on you tube is so garbled that it is very difficult to decifer anything that I said. By the way, I spoke from prepared remarks which I still have. But, even if I showed them to you, you would say that I edited them. Also, 9ps, unless you can produce a letter to the editor in the Royal Gazette, don’t show me any quotes. What you are showing me is a reporter’s interpretation of what was said. By the way 9ps, how old are you – 12?”

RG Article – 6 December 2007

“Yesterday a Progressive Labour Party advertisement ran in both local papers saying Bermuda was in “grave danger” because Mr. Dunkley was calling for a “regime of extreme right wing measures such as: hanging, flogging…”.

“But PLP chairman David Burt said the advertisement was based on the fact that Mr. Dunkley voted against abolishing capital and corporal punishment during a House of Assembly debate in 1999. Section 53 (d) of the abolished Act condoned “imposition of whipping as a kind of punishment”.”

Mr. Burt said he did not believe the advert was misleading: “His past positions may be politically inconvenient, but Mr. Dunkley has repeatedly stated he wants to discuss the issues and the record.

“When the PLP stood up to ban hanging and flogging, Michael Dunkley said no. There is nothing that leads us to believe his position has changed.”

Heck, from the looks of things I wouldn’t be surprised (except for the articulate nature of some of the PLP posts) if Ms. Furbert was the spin doctor in charge.

You are an sick and twisted individual incapable of telling the truth on any level. You are the PLP’s RG I guess you can say.

Typical – I write a criticism of the Official PLP site and they go about and do a good job with two subsequent postings and responding to a comment critical of the ‘UBP Partisans Trash Dame Lois’ post. 🙂

Seriously, thats a great improvement, and I hope to see more of it from the PLP site. Well done!

Glad someone brought this up, has been a major annoyance to me for ages. Just going to the PLP.bm website has become a fearful activity, because I always become tempetd to read what ‘PLP’ has posted and that makes me irate.

It’s lower than low, it’s gutter journalism. They twist quotes (or just make them up) lie, make baseless accusations and all for what? That’s the bit I don’t get. I can just picture whoever the author is giving himself a big high-five for coming up with some new way to put ‘racist’ ‘white’ and ‘UBP’ into the same sentence.

And the scary bit is that it’s their official website. Open to the world.

I’ve tried to comlain many times on Progressive Minds, because at least they have the balls to allow comments. But the only person who posts on there, Rocksolid, is only about trying to make posters look bad if he thinks they’re pro-UBP. Not about discussion.

Best option is just to ignore both of those sites. For blood pressure and sanity.

“But the only person who posts on there, Rocksolid, is only about trying to make posters look bad if he thinks they’re pro-UBP. Not about discussion.”

Indeed. ‘Progressiveminds’ states that its purpose ‘is to promote critical thinking, constructive dialogue and progressive solutions on issues which affect Bermuda and Bermudians’. In actual fact, it’s become nothing more than a mouthpiece for David Burt. It’s anything but a legitimate political discussion forum, and they really ought to stop pretending otherwise.